Chapter 3: new views
The beach was bustling with activity as Kobayashi and the girls arrived
"Wow, it's gotten so lively since I first came here" Kobayashi admits
"Kobayashi, the sea...is it salty?" Kanna asks
"Yeah it is" Kobayashi responds
"It's is the sea then"
"~Ahh I love the beach! Gives you an excuse to show some extra skin without being judged!~" Lucoa cries out blissfully as she sashays up to the girls in the oh so revealing lingerie bikini she showcased to sentaro earlier, Kobayashi's face contorted into a halfway shocked and jealous expression before she sweatdrops and responds
"T-that one's definitely out" she stutters out
"Wha..really? Is it that revealing?" She asks disappointedly then turns to sentaro"what do you think sweetie?" Sentaro gets an eyeful of her "out for the world to see" cleavage and spins around before he passes out from looking at her
"What am I supposed to think?!" He shouts unsure of his own answer
"Well look at me and find out then" Lucoa persists
"Excuse me ma'am" a woman looking to be a beach worker addresses Lucoa
"Yes?"
"I'm afraid your outfit is too skimpy, please come with me" she responds covering Lucoa with a blue tarp"
"What why? Aww come on! It's the beach!"
"No excuses!"
"(Sigh), well it's her own fault" Kobayashi comments
"Shall we find our spot miss Kobayashi?" Tohru asks
"Sure, why not?"
The odd family unit posts up in the middle of the beach and set up the umbrella to provide ample shade, sentaro notices the girl's attire and thinks back to what Lucoa told him this morning about her camouflage ability.
"Hey tohru can I ask you something?" He inquires
"What?" She asks
"Lucoa told me this morning that dragon scales can mimic and simulate regular human clothing, is that how you guys got dressed so quickly?"
"Well kinda, me and kanna found these online and simply copied the designs, aren't they cute?"
"Yeah they are"
"Oh finally she let me go!" Lucoa sighs with relief as she returns with a less revealing but pretty revealing blue two piece on
"Eh I guess it's somewhat passable" Kobayashi dismisses
"I wanna play!" Kanna announces
"Alright let's go for a swim!" Tohru offers, to which kanna responds with raised arms
"Alright girls but not too far out!" Kobayashi orders like a protective mother
"That's a great idea! Sentaro come swim with me! This is a great opportunity to bond with each other" Lucoa excitedly states grasping both of his hands
"Uhhh..umm, I'd love to Lucoa really, but..I sorta..can't swim" sentaro shamefully admits
"Is that all? Well there's a first time for everything!" Lucoa proclaims dragging him toward the water
"W-wait Lucoa!" Sentaro cries out futilely
Lucoa drags him to the water's edge where he stops abruptly and stands firm, he looks out at the cresting waves and nervously backs up
"Well come on silly! The water's not getting any warmer!" Lucoa urges, holding out her arms beckoning sentaro to join her
"I dunno about this Lucoa, I don't think I should be out here, and I don't know how to swim yeah so maybe I should just go sit with Kobayashi-" sentaro tries to turn and flee but is levitated off he ground and turned to face Lucoa who has a wry, demure smile on her face with a cocked eyebrow, she brings him closer to her and she eats her finger in his face
"Tsk tsk tsk! It's not nice to reject a goddess' help" she responds almost menacingly"now quit being so difficult" she impatiently adds, dropping him into the water, sentaro flails around and launches out, attaching himself to Lucoa
"Oh dear, you really don't know how to swim! Hmm..this could be difficult, oh wait" she has an epiphany and grabs both of Sentaro's arms
"Ok sentaro, I want you to hold onto me and don't let go alright?"
"O-ok", Lucoa begins stepping backwards into the water leading sentaro in deeper, he started getting nervous when the water reached his torso and looks back at Lucoa about to plead to get out , but her warm smile made him reconsider his option to ask her to take him back and he decided to trust her judgement. He felt his foot step off what he presumed was the reef into a bottomless abyss, sentaro did his best to stay calm but he just couldn't take it, he felt like he was about to plummet to a watery grave.
"Lucoa please stop! I-I don't know if I can do this!"
"A little too late for that now!" She chipperly chirps, pointing down toward the water, sentaro hesitantly looks down only to be horrified by the fact that they we're out in open water far away from the beach, completely distraught and terrified sentaro let out a shriek and started splashing and flailing about.
"Heeahhahahahahaaaaaghh!" He bellows, splashing aimlessly about in the water trying to keep his head above the surface, Lucoa sweatdrops at her idea backfiring on her, but then gets another.
"Sentaro..."
"Get me out of here! I've gotta get out of here!"
"Sentaro!..."
"Aghhh! Aggghhh! Waghh!"
"Sentaro!"Lucoa shouts, then sentaro falls silent, completely floored by what he'd just heard. Lucoa yelled, she had never yelled at him before, or displayed any real hostility or discontent with anyone
"Calm down!, look you made it out this far, what's to say you can't go further"
"Y-you yelled at me"
"And I apologize, but you weren't listening to me, I had to get your attention somehow, now please, place the same trust in me that you did when we first entered the water, don't you trust me by now?"
"I-I uhh...(sigh)...ok Lucoa" sentaro conceded holding his hands out to her
"Good boy, look at you being so brave! Now look directly at me and me alone sweetie! Let everything else fall away, trust me..you know by now I would never let anything happen to you" Lucoa prattles on, sentaro continues to look at her but sneaks a quick peak at her boobs which just so happened to be bobbing up and down in the water like buoys and looked away abruptly" sentaro eyes on me!" She urges once more
"S-sorry" he said halfheartedly
"Ok sweetie, now I want you to start slowly kicking your legs, you don't have to go too fast just take it slow..." She coos calmly, then sentaro slowly yet progressively started kicking until he was as flat as a board and started foaming up the water where his feet were yet to break the surface
"Good!" She chirps happily" now keep kicking! try a little faster!" Sentaro followed her orders and kicked harder and faster than before, and surely enough he was moving
"I-I'm doing It! Lucoa I'm doing it!" Sentaro exclaims ecstatically
"I know you are! I knew you could!" she gushes proudly, like a mother would her child just learning to walk.
Sentaro stopped kicked to catch his breath and decided to tread.
"Oh! Your treading without my help! Such a fast learner! I knew you could swim baby! You just needed a little push!"
"Speaking of swimming lucoa, although I felt like I was moving myself, we were moving awfully fast for my first time, and if I'm not mistaken you weren't using your legs, so how were we moving so fast?"
"Hmm...nothing gets past you huh? As perceptive as always, close your eyes sentaro, I want to show you something"
Sentaro cocked an eyebrow at her statement, at times he knew to still be wary of her, but he had grown to like her mischievous side as well so decided to indulge her charm
"Ok now I need you to take a deep breath and don't look till I tell you!" She warns and he takes a deep inhale, then he felt himself being plunged underwater, but did his best not to panic, then the weirdest thing happened
'Ok sentaro, you can look' the voice sounded like it was inside of his head, he peeked his eyes open to just find Lucoa smiling at him, but as he looked down his eyes bugged out as he noticed the one thing he had never seen before,she had a tail!, it was long and dark brown with multicolored feathers, large golden rings and fur alike, then he heard her voice again
'In case you were wondering, I'm speaking to you telepathically, and as for this little eye candy I'm giving you, it's all I'm letting you see for now and hopefully this explains the little boost in speed we had had! But enough about me, what I really wanted to show you was this...'
Lucoa held her hand out to show sentaro the amazing splash of color and life that was the bustling coral reef, fish of all kinds going in and out of the kelp beds, clownfish popping in and out of anemone, reef what's sailing just above the coral stalks watching and waiting for unsuspecting prey, morays being clean by cleaner shrimp and octopi slinking into narrow cervices, sentaro was floored and let air bubbles trickle out from his slacking jaw, he had no idea of the beauty that lied beneath the waves and wished he could enjoy it further, if I hadn't been for his lungs screaming for oxygen, he claim bored to the surface as fast as his limbs would allow but felt Lucoa carry him the rest of the way. As soon as he broke the inhaled as much as he could.
"So how was it?" Lucoa asks
Sentaro was to busy heaving for breath but managed to respond
"That was ...incredible! But a little warning would be nice next time!"
"And where's the fun in that?"
Sentaro chuckles a bit, the. Takes a deep breath to clear his system and responds;
"I think that's enough excitement for one day, mind if we head back? I'm exhausted!"
Lucoa smiles and answers
"Of course...whatever you want sweetie~" she coos lovingly, she had bought the both of them a step closer, and it seemed sentaro was finally getting out if his comfort zone, tweaking his how to swim was a huge step forward, as well as having him experience a world outside of his element which will help him build some perspective. Though Lucoa knew the boy had far to go, she at the same time knew, that he could handle whatever she threw at him, no matter how taxing, it was part of the boy's charm and a part of sentaro that she was growing to love more and more.